Diaz dissects fallout of loss to UF, moving forward

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Stefan Adams

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After watching the film of Miami’s 24-20 opening loss to the Florida Gators this Saturday, head coach Manny Diaz felt his team battled well all around, but made too many mistakes at the end of the day.

“I thought at every position we competed and gave ourselves a chance to win the game,” Diaz said. “Every position had a hand in what got us beat - on one hand when I look at it in terms of the effort and fight and strain, we were outstanding, which is no small thing. The to-be-expected errors in execution - in that environment you’re not going to get the best football imaginable. When it really came down to it, we made one or two more mistakes than they did.”

What was the team’s mentality after the loss?

“It wasn’t a sadness, more of an edge, anger, maybe a little disgust which I thought was good and healthy,” Diaz said. “Something to build on going forward.”

Despite the offensive line giving up 10 sacks and 16 TFL, Diaz does not plan on shifting the lineup on the O-Line going forward.

“Those are our guys, and they never flinched, never blinked,” Diaz said. “They got beat, that’s going to happen. That’s hard. They had some good dudes that seniors would have a hard time blocking. But we didn’t build this program for August 24th. The idea here is to build a monster to last and is sustainable.”

Speaking more on why he feels set with the starting 5 on the O-Line, Diaz said they tried many combinations over the offseason, including repping Navaughn Donaldson and DJ Scaife at tackle. At the end of the day, this is the group the coaching staff feels most comfortable with.

“We felt DJ and Navaughn do a nice job at guard,” Diaz said. “We have a lot of confidence in our guys. And sacks do not define offensive line play at all. There were easy throws in the first half, we don’t fan out to a linebacker we should pick up, a man comes unblocked but the ball should have come out. Everyone understands it’s an 11-man job to protect the quarterback.”

Sophomore Tate Martell surprisingly saw a ton of snaps at receiver on Saturday, and was also able to get in and run a few plays at QB as well.

“He’s a threat,” Diaz said of Martell. “There’s a lot of creativity we can do with him, things that weren’t called in the game. There’ll be more to that. If you’re playing defense, you’ll want to know if he’s on the field and where he’s aligned because that can make you change your game plan pretty quickly.”

Martell got the fourth most snaps of any UM receiver, but Diaz stressed that it was in part because he’s both in the Wildcat package and has a package installed for him at QB as well. So, is Martell officially a wide receiver now?

“I don’t know, I classify him as `Tate,’” Diaz said. “Receiver, it was something he was very, very excited about and wanted to do and suggested it.”

With Martell seeing more time at wideout, it meant that sophomore WR’s such as Mark Pope, Brian Hightower, and Dee Wiggins saw much less playing time on Saturday.

“Just the way that Jeff (Thomas) and Mike (Harley) and KJ (Osborn) have kind of separated themselves from the other guys - it’s a game where, we had the ball the last seven minutes of the game, which is crunch time,” Diaz said. “It was a game where we only had 10 offensive possessions, a little unique in that. Just on the field where everything mattered, so the bench is a little shorter than it would normally be. But going forward, we expect to rotate more guys.”

On Jeff Thomas’ drop near the end of the game on a diving and potential game-winning grab: “Jeff would say `I should catch that ball,’” Diaz said. “I thought it was a great throw by Jarren (Williams) to give him a chance. You take a shot, it rims in, rims out, at least we’re competing. We can talk about a play here and there - players understand their level of intensity gives us a chance to win those games against anybody we play.”

Sophomore S Bubba Bolden was held out against Florida and is still not cleared to play in games by the NCAA, but Diaz noted they are hopeful he will be back by the UNC game after the bye.
 
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Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.
 
Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.

Go tell Pope to start playing like he wants it. Quit sucking his ****.
 
Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.

One of the Brothers on the team is starting ahead of Martell at QB.
 
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Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.
Tell Pope to learn the **** playbook. Its been well documented he's struggling with the mental aspect of the game. @nycane
 
Tell Pope to learn the **** playbook. Its been well documented he's struggling with the mental aspect of the game. @nycane
Hightower is the guy who got screwed. Wiggins was a pete ariz all american. Pope is mega talented.
Tate needs to sit down, he will be a cancer on this team if he continues to play. Even with Pope's struggles, you can still find some ways to use him if you can find them for the golden midget.
 
Hightower is the guy who got screwed. Wiggins was a pete ariz all american. Pope is mega talented.
Tate needs to sit down, he will be a cancer on this team if he continues to play. Even with Pope's struggles, you can still find some ways to use him if you can find them for the golden midget.
I don't like Tate being out there as much either. We desperately need a guy to step up.
 
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Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.

So if this was Perry playing WR it would be OK with Pope ???
 
People talking about Hightower and Pope in relation to Tate playing 15 snaps, not all at WR mind you, but do either of them even play slot receiver? If memory serves me correct, on the depth chart Brian and Dee are at X and Mark at Z so not sure what you guys are even talking about? Unless you’re that tore up over him seeing the field over Few or think Harley should never leave the field??

Multiple big plays happened with him out there, and that’s not including the Harris run that was called back. He was open a couple times too so I just think all this complaining is misplaced and uninformed.
 
Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.
See ya later. Next man up. Has not made a difference in practice or games. Havent noticed the guy since he arrived. If anyone has an issue because of race, they could go to class and stay off the field. You should go with him.
 
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Here we go again. Campbell was atrocious out there, and a lot of it wasn't mental.
Yup he was on skates.. looked slow but I am willing to give him a few more games. Greenard abused that kid. He will use that as fuel if he has any heart about himself.
 
“It wasn’t a sadness, more of an edge, anger, maybe a little disgust which I thought was good and healthy,” Diaz said. “Something to build on going forward.”

Good. That's exactly where the team's mentality needs to be. Not resignation or acceptance ("oh well, we were expected to lose this game anyway"), but also not down on themselves. Anger, disappointment in knowing that they can do better, and the drive to actually work to do better. That was reflected in Enos' presser, and in Manny's. If it's reflected in how the team practices, prepares, and plays moving forward, this team has the potential to make some noise in the ACC and end the year with a solid ranking, owning the Coastal, and playing in a high-tier bowl game. Then next year could get REALLY interesting.
 
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Manny, dissect deez nuts and get back to me when we can line up correctly to kick a field goal.
 
Pope will not sit back and watch them play Martell when he hasn't battled at the position long enough to "prove" he's better and gain the respect of the team. Form your own opinion, but if you don't think that is not a big conversation among the wr's and many teammates, you are as naive as a chick who believes you'll only put the head in. Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective.

"Plus the Brothers on team and in general gonna see this in a whole other perspective."

If that were true in any way, then they would be HORRIBLE teammates. To take the position that there is a racial basis for Martell's playing time at WR would be pure nonsense, and frankly, ridiculous. Most of the team is black. The QB is black (beating out a white QB). Anyone on the team who starts seeing color behind anything should just walk away now because they would be nothing more than a cancer in the locker room.
 
If I'm a receiver getting passed over for a converted quarterback then I need to do some serious self examination and decide if I'm playing well enough to be ignored. This isnt like running away from a bear where you just have to be faster than the slowest guy. You need to be the best you can so they have no choice but to put you on the field.
 
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